In Romans 7:18-25 the Apostle Paul is relating his initial experience after meeting Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  He laments the fact that, as hard as he tried, he could not stop sinning.  The church contends that this passage characterized his spiritual state throughout the remainder of his life, therefore they, like him, have no alternative but to sin.  Paul was not a hypocrite.  He railed against hypocrisy in his letters to the churches.  He would not tell other people to live a life he did not live.  As is often the case, sin-excusers fail to read the fine print for it is there that their excuses go to die.  Let us look at the end of Paul’s famous statement to the Rome church to put an end to the idea that he continued in sin until he was martyred.  In verse 25 he asked: “Who will DELIVER ME FROM THIS BODY OF SIN?”  To “deliver” means to remove from.  When I cast out a devil (demon) out of a person that person is DELIVERED–TOTALLY CLEANSED–of that devil.  The move of the Holy Spirit in that person does not simply enable the person to keep the evil demon and deal with it.  The spirit must leave totally.  The “Who” that would complete such a deliverance from Paul was Jesus Christ Who would deliver him from (do away with) the “old man” (Rom. 6:6) and create in him a “new man,” (Eph. 4:24), making him a “new creature”–creation.  “Old things are passed away, behold ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW” (2 Cor. 5:17).  Only God can do away with the old man as if he never existed and create a new man, a man in which God “walks” (2 Cor. 6:16–lives, thinks, speaks and works).  God “walks” in his obedient saint by way of His Holy Spirit which abides in and empowers him to walk the walk of Christ (1 Jn. 2:6).

Paul had been converted over the period following his Damascus road episode.  Like any other babe in Christ, he had to be humbled.  He had to learn how to subjugate his will to God’s will and then obey His will.  This is required of anyone who would be saved.  WE MUST CONTROL OUR WILL, BRING IT UNDER DOMINATION OF THE LORD AND ALLOW GOD’S SPIRIT TO LEAD US AND EMPOWER US TO CONSISTANTLY SUBJUGATE OUR HUMAN WILL TO GOD’S WILL.  Then, whatever we accomplish will be God’s doing.  Our job is to surrender our self-will to God’s will.  The question is, how do I do this?  I can testify based on experience, this is easier said than done.  Man wants his way.  He must subjugate his want to God’s want.  THIS MUST BE DONE, BY US, USING THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

The key to accomplishing this is stated in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, chapter 2 verse 13.  By this time he had learned the secret to winning the War of the Wills, just as his Messiah had to do.  To rule and reign with Him in the Kingdom of God we must be truly converted, learn the victory secret, mature by using it in the power of the Holy Spirit,  become victorious over our human will and obey God.  The key to victory over self reads thusly: “For it is GOD Who WORKS in you both TO WILL AND TO DO HIS good pleasure.”  He wills it; man wills it; man gets out of the way; God does it (walks in) humble man.

We must understand how God “walks” in a true saint.  Romans 8:14 tells us: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” in whom He “walks.”  We must be the habitat of the Holy Spirit and be led by and empowered by that Spirit.  The Spirit is both the “voice” and the “power” of God.  Man must choose to be converted, receive the Holy Spirit, then obey that Spirit in obedience to its “voice.”  Through man’s obedience, God performs His works through His Spirit.  As the angel told Mary, the SPIRIT of God would come on her and the POWER of God would overshadow (come over) her.  God’s Spirit and His power are one in the same.  The human will must submit to Lord in order to be an overcomer and sit with Jesus on His throne in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21).

The human will has its part to play–it must submit to God’s will voiced by His Holy Spirit.  But it is God Who enables one to resist the power of Satan and to obey His (Spiritual) voice.  The formula for overcoming Satan and fulfilling God’s “good pleasure is as follows:”  1) be converted and receive God’s Holy Spirit, 2) learn to hear and understand the Spirit through prayer, fasting and Bible study, 3) use the power of the Spirit to subjugate one’s will to the will of God (learned through Bible study) and 4) obey God’s will which will always be in agreement with His Word.  If one’s inner “voice” tells one to do something that is not aligned with God’s Word, that voice belongs to Satan.  Peter’s rebuke of Jesus is an excellent example of this phenomenon (Mat. 16:22,23).

If you are a Catholic or Protestant you have not been converted.  If you had been converted you would not be a Catholic or a Protestant.  Either you would have voluntarily left or the parishioners would have forced you out.  If you are in that false church system you have received a false conversion from a false god through a false christ who offered a false salvation.  As this website has proven dozens of times, the so-called Christian Church is a counterfeit church owned and operated by a counterfeit god and ministered to by counterfeit ministers using a counterfeit gospel.  God commands the true Truth seeker to “Come out of her (the counterfeit church) and be separate, do not touch that unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).  Then, and only then will you be His people and He will be your God.  L.J.